At present, there are a total of 8 055 drives in service in China, but by 2024, China's second batch of 055 drives will also begin to be launched, and China will have more 055 drives in the future.
And the output speed of China's 055 drive is obviously beyond the imagination of the United States.
At present, the United States is far behind China in the field of destroyers, both in terms of production speed and performance.
American fleet
The problem of the pace of production of American warships
In terms of the pace of production, now China can launch at least 2-3 destroyers a year.
Previously, when the second batch of Type 052D destroyers was in production, the mainland produced 4 to 5 052Ds a year.
Compared with China, when the United States produced a relatively large number of destroyers after the Cold War, it was only 2 to 3 destroyers per year.
Later, after the number of Burke-2A destroyers was relatively saturated, the number of American destroyers launched almost once a year.
The American destroyer was launched
Later, China's 055 destroyer was launched, and the United States hoped to produce more than 10 Burke Type 3 destroyers to counter China's 055 destroyer after the failure of the Zumwalt-class destroyer project.
However, the production of the Burke 3 destroyer has been extremely slow, since the first ship was launched in June 2021, the second ship was not launched until October 2023, with an interval of 2 years and 4 months between the two warships.
In other words, the current rate of launching destroyers in the United States has become one every two and a half years. Compared to China's rate of launching at least two to three destroyers per year, the pace of U.S. warship production is slow.
The slow launch of American destroyers has a lot to do with the sluggishness of the American shipbuilding industry.
The American destroyer was launched
Shipbuilding can be said to be the "root" of the navy, and if the root is broken, the tree will soon die.
Because of the sluggish shipbuilding industry, the United States has to endure the serious aging of its warships even though the speed at which destroyers are launched very slowly.
As warships age, the likelihood of problems with various equipment increases rapidly.
This will not only lead to a decrease in the combat effectiveness of warships, but also lead to an increase in the frequency of maintenance of warships and an increase in maintenance costs.
And in recent years, because of the development of electronic technology, the speed of backwardness of warships has also been very fast.
The shield ships produced by the United States 10 years ago are not advanced now. The rapid increase in the development rate of warships has also led to an increase in the speed of decommissioning of warships.
American shield ship
Normally, after 30-40 years of service, a destroyer should be retired from active service.
Taking into account the current pace of technological development of warships, after 10-20 years of service in the first line, a destroyer should be transferred to the second line and take on secondary military tasks. Retired from active duty after 30 to 40 years of service.
However, the United States has to start postponing the decommissioning of old warships because of the sluggish shipbuilding industry and the slow launch of new warships.
The first Burke-class destroyer in the United States was commissioned in 1991 and has been in service for 33 years now.
Originally, the United States expected to start decommissioning Burke-class destroyers in 2026, but judging from the current situation, the retirement of Burke-class destroyers will be delayed by 3 to 4 years in the short term, and may be delayed by more than 10 years in the long term.
The Burke-class lead ship, the Burke
Therefore, for a long time to come, there will be a situation in which Chinese destroyers will be launched at a rapid pace, while the US destroyers will be launched slowly, and the retirement of old warships can only be continuously postponed.
Technical problems with American warships
As for destroyer technology, only nuclear-powered aircraft carriers in the US Navy are technically capable of overpowering China.
And the American nuclear-powered aircraft carrier is not yet advanced, after all, the moth of the Ford-class aircraft carrier has not been solved until now.
The Ford-class lead ship, the USS Ford, has not yet formed combat effectiveness, and the second ship, the USS Kennedy, needed to remove its own parts and repair the USS Ford because it needed to repair the holes in the Ford, and as a result, the construction progress was regressed for a time.
USS Kennedy aircraft carrier under construction
From the problem of the US Ford-class aircraft carriers, we can see that the entire US navy has been relatively backward in technology after the shipbuilding industry has slumped.
In terms of destroyer technology, when the United States developed the Zumwalt-class destroyer, there was a big problem.
The Zumwalt-class destroyers are full of problems from positioning to many technical details.
At that time, the United States had high hopes for the Zumwalt-class, believing that it would be a "next-generation warship". As a result, this warship has no effect at all after it was built, and now the United States is looking for a scenario where it can be used.
At present, the most advanced destroyer in the United States is its Burke 3. However, the Burke Type 3 destroyer was crushed by the mainland's 055 drive in terms of firepower, combat radius, situational awareness, informatization, etc.
The lead ship of the Burke-3 destroyer was launched
It can be said that in addition to tonnage, the American Burke 3 destroyer is equivalent to the level of the continental Type 052D destroyer.
The problem of warships in the new era of the United States
In response to the 055 drive, the United States expects to produce the next generation of destroyers, the DDG (X).
The DDG (X) destroyer is an obvious benchmark for the mainland's 055 drive, and even jokes on the Internet that this thing is the "illegitimate child" of the 055 drive and the Burke-class.
However, the United States still needs to face quite a lot of problems in order to produce DDG (X) destroyers.
American destroyer of the DDG (X) type
One of them is the shipbuilding industry that we mentioned above. Shipbuilding is the root of the navy, and if the shipbuilding industry collapses, then if you want to design and produce new warships, the difficulty will skyrocket.
In addition to aging equipment and a large shortage of workers, the U.S. shipbuilding industry is now seriously lacking in engineering management talent.
It's very difficult to bring together dozens to hundreds of thousands of people, set detailed goals for these people, and get them to execute those goals perfectly. There is a great shortage of people who can do this kind of thing.
Therefore, the United States has a strong ability to do PPT, but because of the lack of workers and talents in engineering management, it is difficult to implement the technology.
Second, there is the issue of the speed of the "arms race" between China and the United States.
The Chinese destroyer was launched
The United States plans to start producing DDG (X) destroyers from 2028, but China is now launching the second batch of 055 destroyers.
Let's not talk about whether the DDG (X) destroyer can technically reach the level of the 055 big drive, let's talk about the production speed first.
The construction of the DDG (X) destroyer will start in 2028, and we calculate that it will take 5 years for the DDG (X) destroyer to be launched from cutting Shougang to launching.
Then by the time the first US destroyer DDG (X) is launched, it will already be 2034.
Now in 2024, the second batch of 055 drives in China has begun to be launched. Even if we launch 1 055 drive a year, by 2034, China will already have 18 055 drives.
Concept art of the 055 Great Fleet Group
1 to 18, the United States has a huge disadvantage in the number of advanced destroyers.
It is obvious that the roles of China and the United States have been reversed, and it is the turn of the United States to catch up with our army.
Resources:
[1] Upstream News · "The construction of the next generation of U.S. warships has been postponed to 2032, and a 3-year buffer period has been set to continue to build Burke"
[2] Global Network, "Privy Council No. 10: 055 Daqi was also "copycated"